Google's Leaked EU Proposal Goes Over Like Lead Balloon

Google's rivals are none too impressed with the company's most recent round of proposals designed to appease antitrust concerns and end what is now a 3-year-old case with the European Commission.

Google's previous stab at concessions was roundly rejected in April because the changes did next to nothing to rectify Google's abuse of its dominant market position, according to rival companies. Google enjoys a 90-plus percent share of the European search market.

Google's recent proposals were meant to be private, but The Guardian, for one, obtained copies and has queried rivals. The rivals are apparently still rolling their eyes.

British search company Foundem was quick to complain, saying Google's new proposals "remain fundamentally unchanged and suffer from all the same fatal flaws that rendered its previous proposals considerably more harmful than helpful."

So no, it's not even close.

Under the new proposals, Google would continue its much-despised practice of prominently displaying links to its own sites, which annoys rivals something fierce. On mobile devices, Google would suggest a link to "other sites," displayed next to Google's sponsored links.

Alas, these suggestions are apparently nonstarters for rivals.

The 125 organizations currently mulling Google's proposals have until Nov. 28 to respond, although The Guardian makes it sound like the official verdict -- no -- is a formality.

North Korea May Have Pirated Angry Birds

North Korea's recently released tablet comes equipped with 14 games, including Angry Birds, but the developers of the blockbuster app say they weren't affiliated with the inclusion of the game.

Jumping to conclusions, one lands on the idea that North Korea pirated Angry Birds.

There is speculation that the North Korean tablet, called "Samjiyon," was actually manufactured in China, not North Korea. If that's the case, then it meshes with the notion that Angry Birds was pirated, given that China has in the past been a
hotbed
for Angry Birdspiracy.

China Still Hacking Away

Remember those bombshell
revelations
about Chinese cyberespionage? The ones that were supposed to usher in a new era of bilateral cooperation between the U.S. and China?

Yeah, nothing's changed.

On Wednesday, cybersecurity firm Mandiant -- which blew the top off the
story
of People's Liberation Army Unit 61398 back in February -- and a congressional advisory panel reported Wednesday that Chinese cyberintrusions were still rampant.

The U.S.-China Economic and Security Commission issued a report to Congress saying that Mandiant's revelations did little to fundamentally alter the cyberespionage landscape. The report quotes Mandiant experts, who said that hacking decreased for about one month before picking back up again.

E-Commerce Times columnist Peter S. Vogel is a partner at
Gardere Wynne Sewell, where he is Chair of the Internet, eCommerce & Technology Team. Peter tries lawsuits and negotiations contract dealing with IT and the Internet. Before practicing law, he was a mainframe programmer and received a Masters in computer science. His blog covers
IT and Internet topics.